Kwalliso

Kwan-li-so refers to a forced political-penal labour imprisonment camp system operating within North Korea and constitutes one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being jipkyulso and kyhwaso for misdemeanour and felony offences respectively. In total, there are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners housed within the North Korean imprisonment system. In contrast to these other systems, the condemned are sent there without any form of judicial process as are their immediate three generations of family members (see Chosun dynasty feudalism). Durations of imprisonment are variable however many are condemned to labour for life. Forced labour duties within Kwan-li-so typically include forced labour in mines (known examples including coal, gold and iron ore), tree felling, timber cutting or agricultural duties. Furthermore, camps contain state run farms, furniture manufacturing etc.

Overview

Estimates suggest that at the start of 2007, a total of six Kwan-li-so camps were operating within the country. Despite fourteen Kwan-li-so camps originally operating within North Korea, these later merged or were closed following reallocation of prisoners..

Camp locations

The following lists the operating Kwan-li-so camps:

• Prison camp No. 14, located in Kaechon, South Pyongan province.
• Prison camp No. 15, located in Yodok, South Hamgyong province.
• Prison camp No. 16, located in Hwasong, North Hamgyong province.
• Prison camp No. 18, located in Bukchang, South Pyongan province.
• Prison camp No. 22, located in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong province.
• Prison camp No. 25, located in Chongjin, North Hamgyong province.

Camp closures

Notable Kwan-li-so closures are listed below:

• In 1989, Camp No. 11 at Kyongsong, North Hamgyong Province was closed. Approximately 20,000 family prisoners were transferred to other political penal-labour camps.

• Prison camp No. 12 at Onsong, North Hamgyong Province was also closed in 1989 because the camp was deemed too close to the Chinese border.

• At the end of 1990, Camp No. 13 at Jongsong, North Hamgyong Province was closed. Approximately 30,000 prisoners were relocated after fears that the camp was located too close to the Chinese border.

• Camp No. 27 at Chonma, North Pyong-an Province was closed in 1990.

• Camp No. 26 in Hwachon-dong, Sungho-ri district, Pyongyang was closed in January 1991.

• Between 2003 and 2007 it is thought that an additional three camps were closed.

Legislative structure

The Kwan-li-so are run by a police agency and are therefore not specifically tied to the laws and courts of the North Korean government. However, each camp is expected to operate in strict accordance with State Juche ideology.

Operating principles

Detainees are regularly told that they are traitors to the nation who have betrayed their Leader and thus deserve execution, but whom the Worker's Party has decided, in its mercy, not to kill, but to keep alive in order repay the nation for their treachery, through forced labour for the rest of their lives. The emphasis of these camps is very much placed upon collective responsibility where individuals ultimately take responsibility for their own class “wrong doing”. Kwan-li-so guards emphasise this point by reportedly carving speeches of Kim Il-sung’s Chosun dynasty speeches into wood signs and door entrances. Work teams are given stringent work quotas, and the failure to meet them means even further reduced food rations.

Working conditions

Below-subsistence level food rations coupled with hard, forced labour results in a high level of deaths in detention not only as a result of working to death but also by rife disease caused by poor hygiene conditions. Corn rations are the usual staple diet of any prisoner but these may be supplemented by other foods found during labour such as weeds and animals.Each five-person work group has an informant, as does every prison camp “village.”

Internment of prisoners

Defector statements suggest prisoners come to the camps in two ways:

• Individuals are likely taken and escorted by the (State Security Agency) (Bowibu), detained in small cells and subjected to intense and prolonged interrogation, involving beatings and severe torture, after which they are dispatched to one of the prison labour camps.

• Family members: The primary suspect in the family is firstly escorted to the prison camp, and the Bowibu officers later escort family members from their home to the encampment. Family members are usually allowed to bring their own goods with them into the camp however these are usually only used by prisoners as bribing commodities later on.

Encampment outlay

Guard towers and barbed wire fences usually demark camp boundaries apart from where terrain is impassable. Prisoners are housed within scattered villages usually at the base of valleys and mountains. Single inhabitants are sub grouped accordingly into an assigned communal cafeterias and dormitories and families are usually placed into shack rooms and are required to feed themselves.

Zoning of prison camps

Areas of the encampments are zoned or designated accordingly for individuals or families of the wrong-doers or wrong-thinkers. Both individuals and families are further sub divided accordingly into either a “revolutionary processing zone” or “total control zone”:

• The “revolutionary processing zone” (hyuk-myung-hwa-kyuk) accommodates prisoners having the opportunity of future release from the camp back into society. Thus these prisoners are likely re-educated in so called “revolutionizing” areas of the camp - tasks include forced memorization of speeches made Kim Il Sung with specific emphasis placed on re-education of children. A revolutionary processing zone is thought to be operating in Bukchang concentration camp and also at Yodok concentration camp in South Hamgyong Province.

• There is no reported re education of prisoners in “total control zones” presumably because these prisoners are not seen fit to be released and are deemed counter revolutionary.

Awareness

Statements taken from North Korean defectors suggest that despite the secretive nature of the these labour camps, North Koreans are aware of a system (at the very least) of camps in existence and are known to refer to political prisoners as “people who are sent to the mountains”.

See also

• Human rights in North Korea